Starbucks was planning its new mental-health benefit rollout before the coronavirus outbreak, but said it could help quell some of the anxiety workers face regarding the pandemic.

Patrick Thomas

Starbucks Corp.
SBUX 4.32%
said it would begin to offer 20 free therapy sessions a year for all of its employees, including part-time workers, as part of a broader mental-health benefit plan.

The move makes the coffee chain one of the most high-profile employers of hourly service workers to give significant mental-health benefits, human-resource consultants say.

Starting April 6, Starbucks employees can tap their pool of therapy sessions and meet with a counselor in person or via video chat, the company said. They will also have unlimited access to self-care apps through Lyra Health Inc., a software company that connects people with mental-health services through their employer.

The therapy sessions will also be open to employees’ family members, such as a spouse and children, Starbucks said Monday.

“We did a ton of listening with all of our partners,” Ron Crawford, vice president of global benefits at Starbucks, said of the company’s efforts to solicit feedback from employees. “Something that’s been bubbling up over the past year or so has been the topic of mental health. It’s an issue across the entire country.”

Mental-health discussions in the workplace are becoming more common as companies say the benefit can be a tool for improving employee wellness, performance and, ultimately retention. Some firms are bringing mental-health professionals into the workplace to offer on-site counseling for employees.

Starbucks’s decision to give front-line, hourly workers and certain family members access to free therapy is a significant step that might lead to other fast-food type companies taking similar actions, said Laurie Ruettimann, a human-resources consultant who works with Fortune 500 companies.

“It’s different. I think it’s an acknowledgment of the humanity of the workforce,” she said. “It’s a good message not just for the food industry but anyone with hourly workers.”

Mr. Crawford said Starbucks’s move is the second part of a broader mental-health initiative by the company. In January, the company said it would start offering subscription access to the meditation app Headspace to its U.S. and Canada workers. After the benefit was issued, some Starbucks baristas said they bristled at it and complained among themselves that the company should improve their hourly pay and give them more labor support in stores if they really are focused on their well-being, some workers said.

A company spokesman said that in the first month since the app’s launch more than 60,000 employees downloaded it.

“I think that speaks for itself in terms of the feedback we heard from the field,” he said. Starbucks pays a competitive hourly wage and baristas working an average of 20 hours a week receive a comprehensive benefits package, he added.

Starbucks was planning the mental-health rollout before coronavirus hit workplaces around the globe, but Mr. Crawford said that the timing could also help quell some of the anxiety workers now face regarding the pandemic.

“I think this new benefit program makes that solution available to people in a time right now when we all need it more than ever,” he said.

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The roughly 200,000 workers at Starbucks’s U.S. cafes who pour coffee for millions of Americans risk exposure to the virus if infected customers visit their stores and they are under pressure to keep cafes cleaner than ever to reassure customers.